Editorial: Ted Kennedy's legacies: compromise, hard work

Thursday

Aug 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2009 at 7:17 AM

He was either the champion of the downtrodden or a defender of bloated, unnecessary government, the punchline to a political joke or a figure touched by tragedy. There wasn't much middle ground in how America viewed Ted Kennedy, but the legacy he leaves behind after his death from brain cancer late Tuesday at the age of 77 is nothing if not extensive.

He was either the champion of the downtrodden or a defender of bloated, unnecessary government, the punchline to a political joke or a figure touched by tragedy. There wasn't much middle ground in how America viewed Ted Kennedy, but the legacy he leaves behind after his death from brain cancer late Tuesday at the age of 77 is nothing if not extensive.

It's not necessarily what one would have expected from the youngest sibling in a political clan that produced a war hero, an ambassador, an advocate for the disabled, a senator and cabinet member, and, of course, a president. Ted was perceived as the least serious, the one most prone to trouble in his political life. Certainly he wasn't the one who was groomed for a lengthy, world-changing stay in Congress. But unlike brothers John and Robert, he was blessed with longevity, and with that came the ability to achieve prolonged legislative success.

Of course, for all that he accomplished, his record was hardly spotless and free of controversy. Harvard University showed him the door for cheating on an exam in 1951, but later readmitted him after two years' service in the Army. His middle age was dogged by persistent reports of drunken carousing and occasional womanizing in Washington and around the country, which turned him into fodder for late-night comics and slowed some of his legislative crusades during the Reagan years - though his second marriage shelved most of his excesses and redirected his energies into legislating.

Those failings were minor compared to the incident he could never escape: Chappaquiddick, where in 1969 an automobile accident claimed the life of a young passenger in his car, Mary Jo Kopechne. The incident - in which Kennedy drove his vehicle off a bridge on the way back from a late-night party, didn't report Kopechne's drowning death for nearly 10 hours, and didn't answer questions from an aghast public for a week afterward - probably torpedoed any possibility he ever had of becoming president and left a permanent question mark about his judgment. Yet he still sought the Oval Office a decade later in an insurgent campaign against Jimmy Carter that badly fractured his party.

Once his presidential failure was sealed, however, the senator returned to the kind of inside-baseball politics he was truly suited for, and really began to build his achievements. His record in nearly a half-century in public office brags accomplishments most politicians can only dream of. Among them: immigration reform in the 1960s; the launch of the "War on Cancer" in the 1970s; the anti-apartheid sanctions of the 1980s; the Americans With Disabilities Act, State Children's Health Insurance Program, health care portability and family leave in the 1990s; and the No Child Left Behind law and the Medicare prescription drug benefit in this decade. Along the way, he made time to nudge along the peace process in Northern Ireland and to oppose wars a generation apart in Vietnam and Iraq.

His was a record that was undoubtedly liberal - indeed, it was a widely successful Republican fundraising tactic over the years to raise the spectre of Kennedy-supported reforms and watch the political donations start flowing in. But the senator was more liberal than most of his legislative achievements, largely because nearly all of them took shape with a Republican at his side - a conscious decision to win broader support even if doing so meant diluting his goals.

He was half of a political odd couple over the years with such conservatives as Orrin Hatch, Strom Thurmond, George W. Bush and John McCain, and a survey of congressional Republicans earlier this decade found Kennedy named the lawmaker they believed was easiest to compromise with. Many folks in Washington had wondered aloud this year whether his absence while battling cancer had doomed chances of finding middle ground on the current fight over his pet issue, health care reform.

His ability to succeed in the legislative arena made him the senator to emulate, particularly for high-profile newcomers eager to succeed and for failed presidential candidates still hoping to create a legacy. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in particular were advised to follow the same rules Kennedy did when started in the Senate and needed to disprove fears that he was a lightweight, or interested more in the title than in public service. Those rules: Keep your head down, master the issues, work hard.

Like all politicians, you can agree or disagree with his views - it's the kind of vigorous debate he probably would have enjoyed - but it's tough to argue that he was not a good public servant. His willingness to accept in crafting laws that the perfect should never be the enemy of the good, and that all sides should have a seat at the table may seem antiquated in this era of zero-sum politics, but it's a simple roadmap to success - regardless of party.

Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star

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